In most metropolitan areas, land values increase over time at least in proportion to population growth, and the higher the land value the more intensively land needs to be used to justify the cost of acquiring the property and redeveloping it.

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improving building energy efficiency through such efforts as the US Green Building Council’s LEED scoring system, and changing transportation systems to meet emerging market demands can reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than tax incentives and massive alternative energy investments.

US Environmental Protection Agency,2 US Department of Housing and Urban Development,3 National Association of Realtors,4 Smart Growth America,5 Reconnecting America,6 Center for Neighborhood Technology,7 Center for Transit-Oriented Development,8

Generally, the less square feet that are contained in a building the more energy for building materials and operations is consumed per person (by 2.5 times) and per square foot

By removing mobile homes from the analysis, Pitken and Myers (2008) found the average annual rate of loss is about 0.50 percent.

Between 1987 and 2007, the United States added sixty million people—about 25 percent. During that time, its consumption of land for urban uses increased by about thirty-four million acres—about 66 percent.3

In most urbanized areas, nonresidential space accounts for a third or more of the built environment (excluding rights-of-way and other public spaces)

targeted audiences—scientists, policymakers, environmental advocates, the media, and concerned citizens—who can and will take action to protect the plants and animals that enrich our world, the ecosystems we need to survive, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.